Development studies of lyophilized standard diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccines

In this study, diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine components were prepared as the formulations of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP), diphtheria-tetanus (DT) for children, diphtheria-tetanus (Td) for adults, and tetanus toxoid (TT), respectively. Alhydrogel-adsorbed vaccines prepared to contain the stabilizing substances were lyophilized and the immunogenicity tests were carried out both in vivo and in vitro. The potencies of the tetanus component of the vaccines were obtained by the lethal challenge test in mice. The values were found as 144.86 IU/ml for lyophilized adsorbed (LA)-DTP, 116.5 IU/ml for LA-DT, 98.25 IU/ml for LA-Td and 96.2 IU/ml for LA-TT. Anti-tetanus IgG and anti-diphteria IgG levels determined by ELISA method were found high in the sera taken from the mice. immunized with the above-mentioned vaccines. Anti-B.pertussis fimbria IgG antibody levels were also high by both ELISA and microagglutination tests. The test preparations were then compared to adsorbed liquid vaccines and it was shown that the components were quite stable in the lyophilized formulations. It was concluded that the formulations prepared in this study can be used as standard vaccines after being calibrated against World Health Organization standards.